Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop
by LillyKuma
Summary: Marco is an artist and by chance meets Jean at a coffee shop. Story inspired by allexche of tumblr, credits there!
1. Chapter 1: French Girls

Jean gave him a playful pat on his left thigh. A broad hand in green now existed in harmony with the bright oranges and the faded yellows on the twenty-one year old's pants. He really didn't mind though, any time spent with Jean was bright.

'How long has it been? One month now?' The freckly boy thought to himself 'one whole month, is that right…'

Marco thought back to July 1st, 2018 the not-so-eventful day that they had met at the local café. Marco pushed at the door that designed for pull, rolled his eyes and smiled to himself.

"Every time" he thought "I should be used to this by now."

He brushed it off as usual, entered the busy café, stood in line and studied the figures in motion around him. He desperately desired to go back to school to study figures again, but the boy had just graduated a few weeks ago. Marco was a daydreamer. At first he thought something was wrong; he could never focus in school. He never really did exceptionally in academics. He was okay with that, though. All he needed was a pencil, some paper, and someone other than himself to observe.

Marco's feet kept his body moving towards the cashier, unbeknownst to him. Before he knew it the twenty-something person line had made its way forward, pushing Marco out of its stomach into the open.

"Hello, sir, what can I get you today?" The cashier smiled at him.

"Oh, um" Marco stuttered as he tried to push his brain back into reality "I-I'll just get a…a large iced latte, thanks."

"That will be $3.50, please."

Marco sighed as his left hand instinctively went to his pocket. New York was getting to expensive for a kid fresh out of school. A few thumps and pats later, the freckly boy turned tomato red as he realized he had left his wallet on the kitchen counter.

"Ah, sorry. D-do you think you can cancel my order" bringing up a hand to scratch his head "I-I forgot my wallet."

Marco sighed. '_So it's one of those days I see…'_ his thought was cut short when a hand was placed on his shoulder. Surprised, Marco turned around to see another boy grinning behind his glasses.

"Don't worry man, I got it"

Marco was quite stunned. In his five years in the Big Apple, this is definitely a first occurrence.

"Oh! U-um t-thanks a ton!" Marco sputtered out. This was definitely too much to process after snapping out of a daydream.

"And I'll just have a large iced coffee: black." He pulled out his wallet.

As embarrassed as he was, Marco knew he needed to thank the stranger. Moving out of the line's way, he turned to face the boy.

"Thanks a lot!" Marco offered his hand "My name is Marco Bott"

The stranger gave a wide grin. "Jean Kirschtein, at your service." He winked. The two broke out in a light hearted laugh.

"Are you from here?" Marco inquired "you don't see usual New Yorkers doing much of that."

"No I'm actually from Alabama, just got here a week ago, still living out of a hotel" Jean laughed quietly. Their feet carried them, without command, to the closest table. The brilliant June sun filtered through the glass windows illuminating the space around them.

"From Alabama? That's pretty far off, what are you doing in a city like this?" Marco opened the paper packaging of his straw carefully and started fidgeting with it.

Jean put on his best business man pose. "Masters at Columbia Law, Graduating class of 2019." Jean relaxed his shoulders and let out a laugh. "What about you? You look like a seasoned New Yorker."

Marco took a sip of his coffee. "School of Visual Arts, I graduated last month" He said proudly.

Jean leaned forward and whispered "Does this mean that you can draw me like one of your French girls?" he cracked a smile

Marco blushed "I'll see what I can do, Dr. Kirschtein" he dropped his head in embarrassment and laughed. It was strange laughing this much again. Jean was laughing as well.

A phone rang. As Jean politely excused himself and turned slightly away from the freckly boy, Marco took the time to observe and study Jean. It was just a hobby that Marco liked to do. Jean had a medium build to him. Marco could see that the boy was well toned with a slight olive-toned tan. His hair was something else though. Marco wondered if hair could really grow in two tones like that. Jean's undercut was clean but the top of his head was undone at best.

"Sorry Marco, I have to leave. Thanks for the conversation; you're the first person I've spoken to since I've gotten here!" Jean ruffled his hair "except for the doorman at the hotel, I mean."

Marco stood up out of courtesy and habit.

"Thanks for the coffee, and thanks for the company as well, I don't remember the last time I've laughed this much in such a short conversation" Marco gave a smile.

"Have a good one! Don't leave your wallet around at home, Marco" Jean winked.

Marco sat back down and immediately pulled out a pencil and his sketchbook and from memory Marco made a sketch of Jean. He glanced up after finishing the sketch and saw a napkin with some writing scrawled on it. Out of curiosity Marco picked it up.

"That sly bastard" Marco scoffed. He tucked away the brown napkin in his notebook. He'd forgotten his phone at home as well.


	2. Chapter 2: Pizza

New chapter! I'm so sorry this is such an unfulfilling chapter. It's basically a filler—OTL Chapter 3 will have events I promise! [and it will be up soon] Marco's character was always difficult for me to write- Jean's is definitely much easier for me.  
Also, look out for another SnK Au soon! It features Eren and Jean's developing friendship [can someone say brotp hellayeah.] I'm still working out the history details but most of the storyline is finished! I can't wait to get it going.  
Thank you for reading! I'm so happy that people are actually reading this u.u 3  
-

Marco swung his feet over the far end of his bed, letting just his toes brush the floor. He picked up his phone, and watched the LEDs light up in different spots. Just a few more hours until Jean leaves school to come over to his apartment for their first date- wait no. Marco shut his eyes tightly and vigorously shook his head. "No, no, no Marco it's _not_ a date" he muttered. He had really hoped that Jean didn't think of it as a date either. When Marco had called to ask him to help out with his project, he could feel himself turning a whole new level of scarlet.

Marco just laughed to himself. 'Can you imagine? Me and that guy on a date. We're just… so unlikely.' Of course he was lying to himself. The only 'good' reason he could come up with was 'unlikely'. He knew he was lying and for some twisted reason he was okay with that. Even complementary colors 'worked'. But Marco just kept on lying to himself.

Multiple times he had tried to mix paints to get the exact color of his hair. Multiple times he had tried to get the tones in his eyes correct. He'd always fail, leaving him angry and desperate to succeed in his personal competition.

It'd been a while since Marco felt competitive. It left him tired and unfulfilled.

It'd only been a week since the coffee shop meet.

The rest of the day was a lazy one. He spent the day cleaning up his loft, reading a couple chapters of a book Armin, his roommate, recommended, and studied anatomy. Not that he really needed to or anything, he'd have enough to study later. He mentally slapped himself for that comment. The more Marco thought about Jean the more vibrantly-red his face became. He was pretty sure his freckles were blushing as well.

'A… for Armin why can't I find his contact informati- oh' The phone let out the standard connecting tone and Marco tapped his fingers on his knee.

"Hey Marco! How's that book?" Armin sounded quite cheery. His papers must have gone through.

"Hey! It's fantastic, I can't believe that I've never given Tolkien a chance before! How's your stuff going? Ready to move out soon?"

"Geeze, you sound like you're trying to get rid of me" Armin laughed whole heartedly.

"Never would I ever" Marco sighed. It was bitter sweet. No, scratch that, just bitter: like black coffee. He had no idea how people did it. "How am I going to find a new roommate though?" Marco just laughed it off for now.

"You still have a while, Marco! It's not like I'm leaving tomorrow" you could practically _hear_ Armin smile. 

"Y-yeah that's true. I don't know why I'm worrying so much. I just wanted to ask how your meeting with the agent went. Glad to know it went well!"

"Yeah, Eren helped a lot. He's perfectly stubborn enough to get me a good discount" You could hear Eren yell something in the background. "Oops! Gotta go Marco! See you Monday!"

Armin hung up the line first.

"Enjoy your parent's place, Armin." Marco muttered. Great, the rent check will be due soon. There was no way Marco could cough up enough for rent, internet and electricity. Even if he won the art contest, he wouldn't have enough.

Marco decided to get out of bed and work on the painting. He turned on some music and spent the remaining hours engrossed in his work, trying to get his mind off of the stress that came with trying to find a new roommate.  
He secretly hoped Jean needed a place to live…for more reasons than just paying rent. He mentally slapped himself for that comment too. It went on like that. His mind went back and forth tossing around thoughts of Jean, mental slaps and something about an article he had read earlier.

The doorbell rang. Marco dropped his brush into the purpleish water bucket and headed over to the door. When he had opened the door, Jean was waiting there patiently with a big grin on his face.

"Hi!" Jean smiled "I'm about 40% French and ready for you to paint me like one!"

"O-oh." Marco furrowed his brows and was just really confused-until he remembered that it was now around 6pm, their rendezvous time. "OH!" Marco yelled "S-sorry I was painting and I totally lost track of time! Come in! Sorry it's such a mess, my roommate is in the process of moving out." Words fumbled out of his mouth accurately depicting the sudden anxiety he had received.

Jean held up the pizza box that had seem to appear out of thin air. "I brought pizza" His eyes closed when he smiled too hard "I ate one on the way here though…s-sorry" He laughed. So did I. 


End file.
